#but she was interested in what it was so i said its like a forum for fanmade fiction and stuff

[thewadapan]

Maybe Nost's best story! Also his least fun. Definitely did not like reading most of it. Would recommend reading... maybe any of the others over this one?

I think with The Apocalypse of Herschel Schoen, Nost has managed to write a book which is haunted.

Stepping back a little. Herschel Schoen seems to have been conceived almost as a short story, which only happens to be as long as it is as a result of the (deliberately) belaboured and verbose prose used by all the narrators. It's much closer to The Northern Caves in this respect, which I remember as being mostly straightforward and intelligible, with only the highly-divisive ending leaving me with a dangling "??????" to grapple with. Meanwhile, with Floornight and Almost Nowhere, I often struggled to keep up with the object-level facts of what was even happening in the plot/world, and I feel like I mostly read those stories "on vibes", following them mostly in terms of their subtext.

So yeah, Herschel Schoen to me felt like it was using the "fairytale" format of being a Christmas story to streamline things as much as possible, such that both the object-level events of the story and the batshit conceptual-melting-pot subtext were more or less legible to me, despite Herschel's incredibly unreliable prose. There is a sense in which it feels like a children's story to me. It has very few characters, and those characters are extraordinarily archetypal.

So I do think Almost Nowhere retains its crown as Nost's most ambitious, most revolutionary, and most complex novel—if I say that I found Herschel Schoen "better", it's only because I feel I was able to understand it. It speaks more to my failure as a reader than anything.

In terms of my experience as a reader, it was fairly similar to that described by @recordcrash in his review. Most of the story is a fucking struggle to get through, mostly because of... the prose? The pacing? These issues are really the same issue: what few events occur in the book take ages to describe, and the fact that every recounting takes forever means that there physically isn't room to cram in more events. And as Makin Recordcrash puts it: I just don't enjoy hearing the thoughts of an unwell mind, particularly at length. All of Nost's books have it, this entirely-made-up concept which "you just wouldn't understand" but which it nevertheless will tell you about at length. There's Salby and mundum in The Northern Caves, there's Azad and the aliens in Almost Nowhere, there's whatever the metaphysics shit was in Floornight (I forgor), and this is the book that has the most of it, proportionally.

(My girlfriend bounced right off it- actually, let me use this opportunity to tell a story. When we first met, we were talking about the internet or something, and for whatever reason at one point I unironically said something like "oh yeah I read this cool novel set on a forum but you probably wouldn't have heard of it" and she just went "oh do you mean The Northern Caves?" and I briefly became convinced that she was some sort of psyop intended to oneshot me, a notion I have still not been able to shake over two years later. Point is her remark on the first two chapters of Herschel Schoen was something like "it's too Nostalgebraist for me", which I think is understandable.)

Anyway, like Makin, I struggled with most of the book, only for Chapter 21 to be so fucking good that it sort of retroactively made the rest of the book good, at least insofar as it was mostly necessary to set up such an audacious ending? Even knowing that this had been Makin's reaction, I wasn't prepared to believe it—again, usually Nost books are very much the other way around—but lo and behold, the twist is in fact very clever, very fun to read, and very aligned with my aesthetic interests.

All that said, I do feel like Makin sort of bombed through the book (by comparison, it's taken me almost two weeks to finish it), and maybe missed out on some of the more fun and interesting stuff the book is doing on a thematic level. Below, I'll try to delve into my interpretations in more detail.

I've seen a few takes from people that the main thematic throughlines of this book are a bit disconnected from one another, but to me this couldn't be further from the truth.

I identified four main themes, in descending order of prominence: "neurodivergence", "AI", "media", and "capitalism". I guess you could say "Christmas" is something of a fifth ur-theme, which dovetails into these in superficial ways:

Neurodivergence—the idea of "believing in Santa Claus" is framed as stunted development, a delusion which reveals someone to be less mature mentally than they are physically. The book is specifically concerned with contrasting dysfunctional "child" behaviour with functional "adult" behaviour, flipping these ideas on their head by having Ruth and Miriam basically lose it over the course of the story. A sister inverted. Also, the "preparations" needed to be made before Christmas morning are very much analogised with obsessive compulsions, right?

AI—like Santa Claus, something which promises to fulfil all our wishes, instantly, at the same time.

Media—particularly in terms of relations between Christianity and... secular Christmas, right? The story is very much riffing on the structure of Christmas stories specifically. To me, it feels like a world literally dreamed up based on Christmas stories. That, more than anything, is why it's set in New York, I think.

Capitalism—notions of "wanting", of meritocracy. I don't know, we all know "A Christmas Carol", I don't need to explain this one.

Like, if I had to guess at the genesis of this book, based on Nostalgebraist's comments, I feel like it's taking the starting point of "story about what if the AI doomers were right" -> "through the lens of Christmas" -> "[everything else in the story]". Of course there are tons of other influences in there, but those to me feel like the two ideas with the most explanatory power.

But even if you discount the underlying idea "Christmas", I don't think you could tell a good story about AI (in its current form) without writing about neurodivergence, media, or capitalism. If we're tasked with imagining a non-human mind, it makes sense to first imagine the most-non-human human mind, right? If we're talking about the machine's output, its facsimile of media, we have to talk about the real thing too, right? And if we're asking about the purpose of AI, what exactly it is we're trying to industrialise, what scarcity we are trying to erase, then we have to talk about capitalism as well! For me this was all perfectly obvious, I dunno.

I was pleased that I noticed many of the same things @weaselandfriends identified in his list of observations on the book. When it described the wall of doors in the living room, my mind went, "that's fucking weird!", though I didn't really think too deeply about it. The same things goes for all the anachronisms, which I think is one of the story's best gimmicks. Yes, for most of the story, they serve to create a "timeless" atmosphere, evoking all these Christmas stories at once, while simultaneously putting into doubt the reality of what Herschel and Miriam are describing.

But then, of course, with the twist, I think it's pretty hard not to read these as anything other than hallucinations conjured by the AI. And what I think is particularly brilliant is that the story at no point calls direct attention to the anachronisms as being of particular significance—you only notice them because you know enough "facts" about the real world to notice them—which naturally calls into question the elements of the story which are wholly ficticious, where there's no ground truth to compare against. Just how real are Herschel, Miriam, Ruth, anyone!? And does it even matter how real they are?

Part of the book's "magic trick", as I read it, is that both interpretations of Herschel's POV are able to coexist within the reality of the story. We can imagine that there really existed a boy perhaps called Herschel Schoen (just as we can imagine there really existed a guy called Jesus? This is silly, pretend I didn't say that) who perhaps lived in New York City and lived with some kind of delusion, perhaps regarding an Original Creation that only babies remember. Like, even this much isn't certain, perhaps Herschel is entirely hallucinated; the story is in fact preoccupied with the question of whether or not there's even any difference. Anyway, at some point, the AI apocalypse happens (I think this is one thing we can be pretty confident about), and for the AI's own purposes, Herschel is resurrected/recreated (again like Christ- disregard this aside!) in an "emended" form, where whatever changes are made mean that he is in fact right about the Original Creation and the future etc, his mind really was tampered with. The concept of "emendation" seems to me to be the biggest point in favour of the book overall believing that a substitution is not the same as the original; that the "transformation" of one shape into another does not mean it becomes the other, as its own history remains distinct (much as the "original" events of whatever happened to the "original" Herschel on the "original" Christmas Day can be said to have, in some sense, happened—and cannot, should not, be "forgotten"). But maybe these elements of the story were intended to be disparate, though, or related in some other way, and I'm just conflating them?

One of my favourite interpretations that I've seen raised in a couple of places is that Herschel's writings, with which he literally armours himself, are in fact literally protecting him against oblivion, because the AI can only learn based on the written word or recorded speech. It doesn't really matter what happens to the papers, so long as they are written at all. Herschel pours so much of himself into those papers so as to be understood, and in the end he is understood—if not by Miriam and Ruth, then by the only being he needs to be understood by: this machine. He secures his own existence, in at least some limited form, in the "Original Creation", simply through his writing. I think Herschel is the "most real" part of the story.

It's Miriam, though—the second-"most real" element—that I think makes this story haunted. It's the way she packs all those papers into a suitcase, and for the briefest of moments you can breathe a sigh of relief, that we're one step closer to understanding how this book came to be, in-universe. But immediately, it's obvious that this explains nothing, it explains less than nothing, because there are all these chapters which just don't fit, they can't be neatly contained in that suitcase. Bavitz draws direct parallels between the inexplicable frame narrative and the anachronisms, and he's absolutely right to do so. The story is often very careful about providing something which looks "quite right", at a glance, but the moment you think about it, this pit opens up under you. Something about this metatextual conceit actually makes my skin crawl.

It feels pat to say, "oh, that's because it's trying to evoke AI hallucinations". I feel like that's only part of it, because again, most of Nost's novels have this to some extent. But yeah, I think if you wanna read Herschel Schoen as a horror novel, then this is what is scary about it. Conceptually, everything with Miriam mainly recalls for me the idea of "crashes" from Almost Nowhere, which were one of the big horror elements there, the idea that the world you're walking around in is actually, imperceptibly, some kind of not-world filled with not-people. But more directly, I find myself remembering a bit from the third act of OCTO (a criminally underrated and under-discussed webnovel) where a superintelligence is trying to "resurrect" a human, and keeps putting her in increasingly-lifelike simulated "habitats" to try and create the right set of "inputs" that will make her function properly—i.e., without just like, screaming. I feel like that is what we see happen to Miriam in this book. I feel like, when the lights go out, at the end, it has nothing to do with light at all: it's more that the machine just no longer needs to simulate a world for Miriam, at all. The transmission stops. And then what becomes of her?

I think this sort of brings us to Ruth, doesn't it? A big point is made about how there's a difference between "Miriam" and "my sister, Miriam". As though in the latter, the reality of "Miriam" in the training data is watered down by all these tropes surrounding sisterhood. I mean, fuck, maybe that's where the incest stuff comes from, right? I feel like similarly, there's a reading for Ruth where the AI is first conflating these images of "a mother" with these images of "a terrorist". She acts like a fucking cartoon character for much of the book, as many of the less-well-drawn characters do, and I think that's entirely deliberate. As she draws more on the "terrorist" tropes, she stops being a "mother". And again I think this is what Nostalgebraist has always done so fucking well, in that the bullshit sci-fi allegory stuff can also just be read on an entirely character-driven level: here is a resentful, neglectful, ultimately abusive mother, here's the emotional reality of that, heightened and communicated.

I think this provides a vague stab at an explanation for the beating scene that Bavitz found so confusing. It's like the AI draws on this trope of like... the mother, in the kitchen, with the frying pan. It puts the pan in her hand. But it's not actually a frying pan, it's just the image of a frying pan. In reality, did Herschel's mother beat him? How did she beat him? Hell, maybe she didn't, maybe the AI just got so caught up in playing out the trope of the abusive parent that is gets to the point of this beating, and then just dream-logics itself to the next thing in its training data, where of course the beating never happened. I don't like that, it feels like we're gaslighting the kids here (which I think is very much the allegory intended) by saying it was just a hallucination. I think something like it happened in reality, and cannot, should not, be "forgotten". But I think the book does want you to think that its depiction does, in some way, break from reality. Hell, in much the same way that child abuse might be said to break the reality of family? Nah, that's too pat, isn't it?

I guess what I'm trying to get at here is that, ironically, I found the novel was at its best, and at its most human, when it was writing frankly about the experience of mental illness, about family, about institutions, about childhood. So what's maybe frustrating is that I'm not actually convinced Nost is capable of writing a... shall we call it a "normal" story about those things? A story with no metatextual bullshit, no sci-fi conceit, but a realist story. There are parts of all his books, where I really think that the explanation for why they are the way they are is that they are "bad on purpose", and all the bullshit is a way of turning these shortcomings into strengths. The self-effacing voice which whispers that the characters aren't sufficiently well-drawn, are too cartoonish—well, what if that was the point? What if there was a reason for that, in the story?

But honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way. Straightup, if these were normal stories set in reality, I wouldn't be fucking reading them. This is a web author who's trained himself on a bunch of classic lit, and a bunch of anime or whatever, and has smooshed those influences together and rocket-fuelled the result. It's inimitable. I deeply admire just how experimental Nostalgebraist's writing is. No-one else is doing it like him.

Anyway, what else. Herschel gets described as having a "shell" at various points, and Frederick's surname is "Eggert". Is that anything?

The Apocalypse of Herschel Schoen

My fourth novel, The Apocalypse of Herschel Schoen, is now available in full.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

[frybolg]

im too old and too tired

read omegaverse, give people your most deprived ao3 fics as recs, enjoy dead dove do not eat

also

remember there are people who do *not* have internet brain rot and they are best given a slightly more tame fic to read

they'll find all of that on their own

be prepared to give them 'the talk' when they do (kudos, comment and bookmark. your bookmarks aren't private. don't be feral with punctuation because it's bad for screen readers. filter what you don't like out)

[koiiiji]

windbreaker characters as parents ༘⋆🌷🫧💭 ⋆˙

tw ; cuteness overload, contains character x character and character x reader

pairings ; min u x mia, shelly x jay jo, dom x reader, monster x reader, vinny x reader

౨ৎ let's start from min u and mia! proud parents of a girl and boy who are three years apart. girl is the older sister and goes along with her brother super well even through his puberty. mia is a great mother and her kids never hide anything from her as they know that they can trust her. mia and her daughter have their own "girls secrets" and side jokes, while min u and his son are super annoyed by it and tried to make their own side jokes, but girls always know its context. also, their grandad and auntie yuna spoil them so much!!! and also min u father are so proud of his son and he really likes mia. all in all 10/10 highly recommended to be born in this family.

౨ৎ shelly and jay. here things are more complicated because shelly parents insisted on them move in the UK during her pregnancy, but they decided to stay in Korea simply because shelly likes weather more and feel more comfortable there. life blessed them with a boy - a copy of his father. but he is a mummy's boy and he gets along with shelly more, even their son's first word was "mama!" when he happily squished shelly’s cheek with his small hands. with time, he builds more interests with jay’s hobbies, so till he hit his puberty he was such a sweet child. but when he turned 14? monster that going through "nobody understands me" era. sometimes jay wonders maybe he need to send his son to his mother so she will teach him some discipline, but then jay remembers that he doesn't want to give his child such trauma. by the way jay family calmed down the moment jay was accepted on the really well paid job and even his mother was proud that her son has international family. all in all 7/10 bc both jay and shelly parents would have a beef over who is better grandparents.

౨ৎ so i can imagine that dom would accept his father's business even tho he didn't insist. so you two were gifted with three daughters each with year apart. dom honestly wished his first would be a boy so he can grow up and protect his sisters, but fate had her own ideas. through your second pregnancy dom repeated that he would be happy for girl or boy, just healthy, strong child (he prayed for a boy), and you decided not to find out who you were going to have until the baby was born. and it was sweet, super calm girl. on third pregnancy dom really tried to have a boy (yes, he scrolled all that weird mums forums to find out in which pose you can conceive a boy). he has genuinely been surprised when doctor said you will have a girl. who was the happiest over the fact that he surrounded by girls? his father!! he loves all four of you, and dom suspect that his father loves you more than him. he definitely would call you daughter and generally he is super granddad and father-in-law. your daughters loves their granddad too!! imagine them cling to him from all sides, hanginig on his neck, arms and legs. generally girls goes along super good, but oldest and youngest are more close to their father as they share extrovert personality, while middle girl gets super along with you. dom are scared that they are growing up too fast and that in one day they will start dating b̴̨̢̰͖̂ͫͨ̒ͦͩơ̷̧̢̛̤̠̻͔̤̖̳͖̥̼̲̮̥̣̼̮̂̽̓ͮ͆̉ͩ͆ͣͧ̿ͫ́͋ͩ̏̚̕̚͜͞y̶̢͎̜̬͖̩̰̬̞̓͌̽͆̈́̉̑ͨ̂ͧ͌̌̇̅͗͌͘͜͟s̶̸̢͉͙͈̳̻̣̲͔̜̩ͮ̌̃̄̄̓̍̽͌̈́͑́͑ͩ͟͠͝ 💀☠️ all in all 9/10 dom vibes with his favourite girls but one one stingy male tear drops when he sees fathers play baseball with their sons (he was hitted in the nose with a ball from his youngest daughter)

౨ৎ when you and deokbong announced that you will have a child, people were... curious - how?? how you would be able to carry his child since you look so small in comparison to him. and you know what? it was twin boys... the birth was difficult but you did it and then you faced new challenge - both boys was copy of their father and they was heavy. you prayed for your back, seriously, but deokbong is super supportive husband and father so he was always there to help you. thankfully your boys were calm. like literally they always had serious faces, fists clenched and almost never cried. with time your younger one maintained your character and more of your features showed, like brows and nose form, cheeks, and face shape. all in all 10/10 you four would be happy simple sport family!!

౨ৎ vinny hong refuse to have children. end of headcanon.

but seriously, vinny had huge trauma from his father and from bulling in school, he will never be sure that he is enough as financially and emotionally for kids, so you two are proud parents of one big dog, maybe doberman or cane corso and lazy cat. all in all 7/10 just because there are too much wool at home and vinny refuse to go on a walk with dog in the early morning.

[palaceofpassion]

Any fun developments in householdarc au?

What do other teams think of them having a caretaker? What do they think of Jaune?

Has Jaune made any friends at Beacon?

"So." Weiss pointed at the screen in front of her, "I was doing research on the schools forums. And apparently there was a topic about our caretaker." She muttered, being ever the nosy one, always looking to make new contacts, and more connections, she had gone out of her way to advertise assistances she could provided... only to find out, that apparently Jaune was the talk of the town, or well school.

"Really? That's... odd, why would they talk about Jaune?" Pyrrha, wasn't exactly interested in technology, beyond what it could do for her huntress career at least... so she wasn't exactly an expert when it came to finding information on the schools website.

"Well, apparently, its more of a rant thread? Or a discussion on why we even have someone assisting us, when others don't." Weiss couldn't exactly put it into words, "It started as that, anyways... but then it just came down to their opinions of him, and some of them are a little... very grotesque."

She pulled away from the screen, as two pairs of green eyes, and two pairs, including her own, of blue eyes scanned the computer.

"What... that's..." May was baffled, her one good eye blinking as she stared at a couple of lines that caught her attention.

CardnRIz: Bet he sniffs their clothing, probably a HUGE pervert.

BerretQNE: Projecting much? He's alright, though those kids are lucky, wish I had someone to do all my chores for me, must be nice.

Bunny4U: Coco... you don't do any of the chores as it is... he's alright, I think? Has anyone actually seen him much around campus?

PinknSweet: OH OH I have! Rennie and I were in the cafeteria for third lunch, and he was there taking notes from the cafe ladies and checking ingredients! Rennie does that ALL The time! So they started doing it together.

Yangnbang: Think he's shagging any of em? Wonder if the Ice Queen's putting out~ Though, considering how tiny their group is, he probably prefers the big and tall type. Both have loosened up lately, so maybe they're getting some dick.

cookieLuvaer: EEWW Yang! That's disgusting! And I dunno. Seems kind of weird to have someone always working for you.

BacknBlack: Hmm... a love triangle... no no! A love pentagon, all from different social backgrounds... I can see it. Perhaps there is plenty of sneaking behind the others back in this case.

BerretQNE: My money's on one of the silent short stacks. Bet they get extra freaky-

"Okay, I think that's enough Weiss!" Jessica quickly used her semblance to press the power button- "Hey!"- It was clear to Jess, that things were getting out of hand, "That was... all very vulgar. And wrong."

She shuffled around nervously, while May said nothing, her cheeks simply flushed red. Her eye darting back and forth in a spout of confusion and embarrassment.

"Right... so, I think the problem is, that he doesn't talk to anyone... we have to get him to make friends. Or these rumors are going to keep getting worse."

Pyrrha nodded, yes... friends. That was something she needed to do as well, but she supposed Weiss was right. "But he doesn't... really go out much, does he? I think he's friends with Ren from RRBY... But that's it."

Weiss chewed upon her bottom lip, unsure of even that. Not like she'd know how to make friends...

Actually, all four of them were bad at it, now that they thought about it.

[stellaclaw]

i can see your perspective, and to some extent i do agree. some of my favorite character in other fandoms are villains (something i have actually been attacked over lol).

when i say the books lack complexity, i dont mean the building blocks arent there. however, it needs to be heavily contextualized in that the writers often discard what they have- bonefall found an excellent basis the writers had set, but in crowfeathers trial, its often been noted that breezepelts edges are sanded down to make him more agreeable, and thus give an “easier” version to forgive- indeed, what we see of him in dovewings silence is very inconsistent from crowfeathers trial, and his arc is wrapped up rather abruptly and not even from his pov, when it really, truly should have been to give it a satisfying ending. furthermore, when crowfeather blames nightcloud for breezepelt hating him, we are to some extent supposed to accept that nightcloud was a problem. in the guide books shes described as jealous and bitter and coddling, and even on the official website she is assigned adjectives, and thus we are to assume her defending breezepaw from his father is bad and she had some hand in how he turned out.

the reason warriors is loved is because the pieces are there. but the writers continually neglect them, and in the end water down their own writing. breezepelt is one of the very few cases i mentioned where the set up is good enough that it can still shine while the landing was fumbled.

its why i have such trouble giving such leniency to appledusk. there is a trend in the books of such things, and so it is natural to become skeptical of the writers intentions, which im sure is something you can understand.

i can fully accept people wanting to see complexity in appledusk, and hes probably a character i would like in a “messy guy” sort of way, but there is a problem in parts of the fandom where people defend his cheating (usually by portraying mapleshade as a “buff scary woman” and depicting him as small and frail, and positioning reedshine, who he also deceived, as a therapist to him). maybe i can like him some day (i am number 1 frecklewish fan yes she did those bad things and it just adds flavor to her), but ive personally dealt with that sort of… gestures vaguely.

also dw about rambling lol i had no idea where i was going either. also didnt mean to assume, i spent a lot of time in the wcrp forums so my brain is just kind of attuned to read into things. that being said i responded calmly because i do not like to assume actual malice, doing so just makes a meaner fandom space and also prevents interesting discussions like this.

anyway if people are allowed to make excuses for bramblestar and fucking appledusk, I should also get to say that nightcloud did nothing wrong

[matan4il]

911 ep 701 first watch reactions

(I don't think I have the energy to write proper Buddie meta, so here's me randomly squealing instead...)

LMAO In case you were wondering whether s7 of 911 will be subtle about their gratitude/debt to ABC for saving the show, the answer is a resounding no.

Also, I have lost a lot of respect for Frank as a shrink, but gained a lot of love for him as a sass king. "Did she win!?" The murderous look Athena gave him was priceless. I love her, too. She doesn't even need words to rule.

Man, nooooo. Don't give me a mutual "I love you" between Bobby and Athena like that.

"Go ahead and cut the green wire." Everyone and their sister: "Green? You said Red."

9-1-1 is the superior comedy they slipped into our drink, while we were here for our weekly action, suspense, drama and familial love.

Buck broke off with Natalia, and the show really did it like that. XD Every single person who rolled their eyes at this pairing during s6, we were all justified, but wow. The show really is the only forum to respect the pair even less than fandom does. And of course we find out about it in the middle of a scene built around Eddie being half naked, Buck watching him, with the camera specifically turning so we can discover Buck was initially covered by Eddie's body, and the angle change reveals him, when the whole thing wraps up with Eddie welcoming Buck back to the land of the living... Yeah, wonder what made Buck feel alive again. Don't know. 'Tis a mystery. We were given zero clues...

"I want the honeymoon life." *cries* Chimney is just such a good, good man. And okay, expecting your whole life to be a honeymoon's a bit unrealistic, but Madney are living together and they have a child. They know this. Chim knows this, but he still wants to go for it. Aim for the moon, you'll at least land among the stars, right?

Bobby baffled by Athena's reaction to Norman and Lola is hilarious.

I like how Chim has a great idea, but it's still obvious that it's gonna go wrong, because he can't help going overboard with it...

OMG, that scene with Eddie recounting to Buck what Christopher's date was like... If I were to write my Buddie meta, I would serve a three course meal just from that. I mean, the fact that watching Chris hanging out with a girl he likes, makes Eddie compare it to "hanging out with his guy friends" (when there's no lack of interest in this girl... in fact, it turns out that if anything, Christopher's problem is the opposite of a lack of interest) is so telling. There's a reason why that's where Eddie's mind went.

But then also... Eddie's trust in Buck got to me, the way he went to his best friend (not his own gf) for help with Chris. But that was still played with half a smile. But then Buck sort of disses himself jokingly, and Eddie won't have it. "You didn't end up like you." He sees how Buck worked on being a better person, even when Eddie wasn't there for the worst of it, and he appreciates it, and won't let Buck forget it. Meeeep. I love them.

Oh Chim. I was giving you so much credit, and then you went and bought that outdoors jacuzzi. lol Still love him. That's what Maddie's reminding herself of right now, too. ;p

Poor Hen, she was great in this ep, but none of it was really about her, she was comic relief, both with Chim and with the red wire. Then again, she was amazing in this, like she always is with everything.

Eddie and Buck were both so good with Chris this ep, MY HEART. Buck with getting him to talk about what's really bothering him, and Eddie with realizing exactly what his son needs, and how to give it to him. They completed each other. Neither one would be helping Chris without the other one. Tell me again how they're not soulmates?

In conclusion, I love Bobby saying, "Let's go prove one of us wrong," when they're both right. Something WAS going on with Norman and Lola, AND Athena was using them to avoid him.

Argh. That scene of the ship and its passengers being hijacked was rough to watch. </3 I'll still be here to watch the conclusion of this. That's the power of 9-1-1 for you.

It def felt like a great kick to the new season. We had lots of comedy and fun, some great tension, some emotional moments (especially with Christopher), but all in all, it's still clear that the whole thing's a build up to next week. Are you excited?

[wisteriasymphony]

Inceldrien!AU - Dead on Arrival

(co-written by @pyrusinc )

DISCLAIMER: offensive and derogatory language, homophobic slurs. These guys are 4channers.

“Fuck you, you— dumb bucket of festering discharge!”

A silence cut through the room, slaughtering the tension with it. As the argument laid dead and bleeding on the floor, Adrien looked into Claudia’s eyes for what might’ve been the first time. 

“…You’ve read Homestuck?” He asked. 

They somehow spoke it in unison: “Past me is the dumbest bucket of festering discharge I ever fell ass backwards into.”

A few more breaths as they studied each other. Then, Adrien sat back down on his couch. He felt like he was going to fall over, maybe even through the floor. Suddenly he had no clue where he was, or what he was doing. And yet he was curious.

“You didn’t tell me you read Homestuck.”

Her tone matched his in its humble honesty. “You never asked,” she confessed, sitting down beside him. “How far along are you?”

For what had to have been a good half an hour, Adrien had the first real conversation in his life about something he was interested in. Gabriel would never really be able to understand half of the things that Adrien could talk about anyways, and it wasn’t like people were ever clamoring for these sorts of opinions from him. All of his accumulated knowledge of Homestuck and MLP and such could only ever be expressed on image boards or forums, and it was only now that he realized it felt so much better to say these things out loud. He was making her laugh—He, Adrien Agreste, was able to make someone laugh from something he said!—and she was responding enthusiastically, like she knew everything he wanted to say before he could even think it himself. He leaned back onto the couch as he kept talking about the best classpects, Claudia would lean back as well and prop up her chin with her hand, and for a moment she even tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and he noticed it as it happened.

 It was only as Adrien reached for his Mountain Dew that he realized just how wrong and stupid and disgusting this was. Why of all things did he have to be enjoying her company? Claudia’s company?

He set down his drink as soon as he picked it up, turning his face away from hers. Adrien didn’t want to make it clear that he was panicking. 

“Get out,” he interrupted in the middle of one of her sentences that he wasn’t even listening to anyways. “You should go.”

Claudia’s words caught in her throat. Goddamn her for letting her guard down, for actually letting herself talk to Adrien. There was no reason to even be upset, and yet there she was, body suddenly numb as she scrambled to figure out just what she said that Adrien was suddenly so mad about. It’s not like she had a reason to care anyways—Why the hell would she ever give a shit about what he felt? It wasn’t like she was having a good time, that simply wasn’t possible. At best, Claudia was humoring that idiot, there was no way she was enjoying herself, there was no way that she found his smile something worth looking at when he talked. Adrien Agreste was the most irritating, pathetic, retarded putrid fuckwad she had ever met in her life. And it was a blessing that he was finally cognizant enough to give her the chance to leave that she’d clearly been itching for, even if it didn’t feel right to stand up after sitting still for all that time. 

So it didn’t catch her off guard. Nor did it hurt.

“Fine,” she spat back, grabbing her things. “I’ll go. You’re an asshole anyways.”

Adrien knew that Claudia could’ve shut the door harder, maybe even slammed it shut. But despite that... it was the loudest he’d ever heard that door get shut in his life. The last echoes of it lingered for hours after she was gone. 

—

There was a certain silence that fell over the places the two would normally argue. The traffic died down significantly over the next week, as if a solemn understanding had somehow made its way through without actually being shared, and the whole site was in an awkward phase of mourning. Claudia stopped posting entirely, and that included her short stories—no creepypastas, no jokes, no snide retellings of conversations. She knew he’d be able to read anything she posted, no matter where it was, and that sucked out all of the joy. Adrien made it clear he didn’t want to hear her thoughts, so she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing her share them. Radio silence. 

Adrien would click through every board until his fingers ached. General, Paranormal, Music, Anime, News and Politics—Somewhere there had to be something. The faintest whisper of activity, a muttered comment or snide chatter of her voice, something she would try to hide from him in vain. Adrien couldn't tell exactly why he felt this pain in his chest as his search continued to draw blanks. He felt like shit, but there was no reason for it. No justification for that gnawing, rolling discomfort settling in his stomach that made it impossible for him to focus on himself or even get up from his chair: Adrien had every right to kick her out. He couldn't put a finger on the cause of the pain, but he could put his fingers on his keyboard. And so he continued to look. Not eating, not sleeping. Just searching for something.

Click, click, click. 

He doesn’t want to admit he knows, but he does. Maybe the screen will eventually burn through his retinas and he won’t have to put effort into thinking about why that flash of hurt across her face when her mouth snapped shut mid-sentence wouldn’t exit his mind. Maybe the ache in his fingers will distract from the image of her hands (which had been animatedly gesturing the entire conversation in what can’t be cute, but instead the most annoying thing in the world) suddenly freezing and falling to her lap. Maybe he’ll just die on the spot from all this, and he won’t think about missing her presence. 

He wasn’t going to apologize.

He wasn’t going to apologize.

He wasn’t going to apologize.

intothetrash@aol.com sorry. -a.a. creepytan@aol.com i don’t want to talk to you

Adrien found it hard to look at the screen. It was just an arrangement of pixels. Letting out a sharp breath, his fingers flew to the keys without really even thinking. 

I SHOULD BE THE ONE WHO DOESNT WANT TO FUCKING TALK TO YOU CUNT YOU REALLY THINK YOU CAN ACT LIKE THAT?? DO YOU HEAR YOUR STUPID FUCKING SELF?? YOU FUCK WITH ME LIKE THIS ALL THE GODDAMN TIME THIS IS CALLED KARMA YOU DUMB FUCKING SLUT

Delete, delete, delete. The cursor flew back to where it was, erasing everything. Adrien took his hands off the keyboard and clutched his head, sighing as his palms dug into his eyes. 

He didn’t actually think any of that. None of it was true, and he didn’t have it in him to convince himself otherwise. It wasn’t her fault that she made him feel so horrible, even if he wanted to want to feel that way. Adrien just felt so tired staring at the screen, at those seven little words—“I don’t want to talk to you”, so much stupid pain somehow in just seven words!—and he couldn’t understand why, not consciously. In his gut he could feel the reason, though. He did deserve to feel like shit for what he said, and for everything he’d ever said to her. Adrien had called her names, berated and belittled her, insulted her very existence. It was only the crime of causing that distraught look on her face that brought even the notion of wrongdoing to him. Somehow, he’d been horrible to her so many times, and it was all fine? It didn’t mean anything tangible. It was fun.

There was nothing fun about the way the light in her eyes dimmed.

intothetrash@aol.com i deserve that. but you can still talk -a.a. intothetrash@aol.com even if it's not to me. -a.a.

God, as if she needed his fucking permission for shit. Did he really think that everything she did online, anything anyone ever did online, was just for his entertainment? She wrote for herself, damnit, not some greasy failure who thought the world revolved around him just cause his daddy brought home a big paycheck. If she wanted to get off the internet forever, she could, and Adrien wouldn’t be able to do shit about it. Claudia wasn’t just going to give him more of her stuff to look over just because he was so benevolent as to approve it. 

But also, if this was the first time he’d ever apologized for something in his life, Claudia could believe it. When would anybody ever ask for an apology from Adrien Agreste, heir to the multimillion enterprise that was Maison de Mode Gabriel? Claudia couldn’t imagine him in a positon where he was required to repent. Plus, given his caustic personality, it’s not like he’d ever freely debase himself with an apology to any random person… So what did it say about him, about her, that he was willing to reach out on his own like that? Make an entirely new email just to reach out to her?

And, well… what did it say about her that she’d even checked? She rarely used creepytan@aol anymore. How did she know that it was him?

creepytan@aol.com ok

She just wouldn’t think about it too much. Maybe it was sweet, in some twisted way, but that didn’t have to mean something to her. It was nice to just be able to breathe again, to post the next creepypasta she’d been holding onto for a few days now. Claudia knew he’d probably be one of the first to see it, maybe even within seconds, but that wasn’t necessarily a new thing. Obviously Adrien had been stalking through her shit online. That was how their whole shtick went. As she cues up the Paranormal board, Claudia decides she doesn’t care if he sees her talk again. Whether she believes herself is a different story, a story she doesn’t want to listen to. Either way, the boards are revived, and traffic flows once more on those shared spaces. There’s a silent sigh of relief, all in understood unison, by the denizens of those foul internet crannies that the silence was over.

Still, though... something must have happened. It’s unusual for Creepytan and Richfag to not cross paths for this long. Minutes, hours, then days. The concept is unthinkable: They’re practically all over each other, like rabid dogs clamped shut on the other’s tail, running around in circles. They’re both posting, sure, but there’s been no interaction…

File: [wtf.png] CREEPYTAN V RICHFAG LOLFEST DEAD?  Anonymous 02/10/12 No.275607 >bros >wtf happened

[broodingheroine]

tmagp thoughts (this will be pure nonsense I just need to write it down)

alice is so tim coded

obviously there's a connection anyone can make to the multiple statements abt urban exploration/spelunking in tma and the redcanary forum thread.... it invites the horrors (connection to danny?)

gwen is a ✨️bouchard✨️ (implication that while its a parallel universe the same ppl still exist? supports possibility of spelunking forum thread connecting to danny somehow (not actually super sold on that but seen a lot of ppl mention it so))

colin is definitely going to succumb to the horrors :/ (either first to die OR..... this universes version of an avatar?)

CHESTER AND NORRIS!!!

I'm of the firm opinion that they're jmart BUT! but but but! I do believe they're echoes of who they were, this just so happens to be Somewhere Else.

also! yes I understand that we most likely will Not get any tma characters in any meaningful way in tmagp, however I also believe that alex and jonny couldve very easily.... not...... voiced the text to speeches....... like yeah I dont think we're getting jmart as we knew them but..... come on

also also. the text to speeches got less robot sounding the longer they were reading and it really reminded me of how ppl reading statements would slowly get invested as they were reading and emote as if it were happening to them.

sam is on the archivist (or tmagp equivalent) pipeline already yikes

the turpentine line was raw as fuck. so was the canary one obviously. don't want to beat a dead horse by talking abt that bc so many others have already said it. but! the institute is deadly stay away!!

the sound engineering is god tier I love all the bleeps and bloops

colin knows smth is Watching. inadvertently feeding the eye by being paranoid? does the eye even exist the same way it did in tma?

theres definitely smth to be said abt whether or not robert smirke did his thing the way he did in tma and if anyone in the know uses the same classification or if the oiar is the only group categorizing. the fears always kind of blurred together at certain points so maybe without the human interpretation of it being 14 distinct entities it's more of an..... amalgam?

magnus institute is in a different place which is interesting. if it was built for the same reasons (outside of just research) is there another panopticon esque structure underneath? (brings us back to if smirke was doing his thing)

very curious to see if theres gonna be a leitner books equivalent.

I deeply deeply deeply desire a michaela salesa cameo at some point. he's one of my fav side characters.

sam and gwen using classic horror characters to help him try and memorize the classification categories was very cute

another thing I'm sure everyone has talked abt already but the whole world wide WEB thing and possible jmart in the computers and omg they're in the web and the oiar is part of the web and blah blah blah u get the image.

lena is intriguing to me. my guess is she's going to be a gertrude esque character who knows at least the basics of what's really happening and is trying to put a stop to it.

I havent seen anyone talk abt like...... what IS the magnus protocol. like tma was the archives in the magnus institute. the magnus archives. self explanatory from like ep 1. what the hell is the magnus protocol. is it smth fr3-d1 will run? or the text to speeches? is it tmagp's version of a ritual? using protocol to reference the updated tech from tma? is it smth the actual organization has to run in the event of Something Happening? WHAT THE PROTOCOL WHATS IT FORRRRR

I know nothing abt the ARG shit, just to note that

okay I think that's it for now..... feel free to discuss in the notes lol

[lorillee]

naruto character social media headcanons:

naruto: sakura made him a personal instagram account 3 years ago and he legitimately has opened it exactly twice (both times because sakura was asking him to pull something up). its just really not for him. honestly though that being said i feel like you could get him to be a vine creator you KNOWWWW he's abusing his shadow clone ability for this

sasuke: lets be so honest hes not touching any of that with a 50 foot pole, ever. NEXT!

sakura: definitely has a personal instagram, could also see her having a fitness instagram as well. given shes also canonically a fujoshi lets be so honest she has an ao3 and probably a fandom twitter account for liking/rting fanart as well

sai: also does not get the appeal at first. i think sakura made a valiant attempt to convince him to make an instagram account for his art but this does not pan out. it is only when ino shows him twitter's incredible versatility for haters that he understands what the hype is all about.

yamato: my immediate instinct would be to say no probably not HOWEVER i think it would be really funny if he was incredibly active on r/architecture and literally nothing else

kakashi: for the most part a hard no. however i do believe he is casually active on an incredibly obscure forum for the icha icha series. at some point naruto or sakura accidentally see that he has it pulled up on his phone and spend a solid like week hunting down his account and reading through and making fun of all of his posts. he does not know this happened

guy: honestly i think he has a facebook account that is exclusively used to find and post boomer style workout memes and positivity posts. he sends an egregious amount of the aforementioned workout memes to kakashi and lee (enthusiasm of the receivers is about what you can probably expect)

neji: decidedly proclaims social media to be a cesspool and a waste of time, does not partake. he does, however, have a meticulously upkept letterboxd account with extensive and incredibly thorough reviews of everything he's ever watched. (i believe weekly team guy movie nights can be very frustrating for him personally because neji as a person prefers films that are very introspective/character driven/abstract but the rest of his teammates more than anything are interested in watching a bunch of guys beat the living snot out of each other)

tenten: she's got an instagram where she posts short clips of training using her vast arsenal of weapons - lee and neji are frequent guest appearances as sparring partners. i also could see her having a tumblr or some sort of blog to geek out over the latest thing she's picked up

lee: i think he has facebook and instagram but purely to very enthusiastically comment on guy and tenten's posts. otherwise its really not his thing

ino: YOU KNOWWWWWWWWW SHES GOT IT ALL. tiktok instagram twitter triple threat she's definitely an influencer she's big in the makeup scene but also has huge kpop side accounts. shes definitely always getting into drama but always comes out on top in the end - a bit of a controversial figure but overall has a frankly militant fanbase. always up to date on the latest idol drama and you KNOW she'll be posting about it. also has a defunct tumblr account that which was definitely an obscenely popular aesthetics blog back in the site's heyday, but in modern times has since moved her collage boards to pinterest

choji: you know this i know this we all know this HES A FOOD BLOGGER!!!!!!!! in this world blogspot is still alive and well and hes making a killing on there. i think he would also have a tiktok account though for short review videos usually featuring his friends where they go to taste test new restaurants/dishes. i think he also has a personal instagram account just for posting friend photos and whatnot

shikamaru: very casual reddit scroller, when hes bored he'll trawl through a few political subreddits and perhaps r/shogi. never posts and has accounts on basically nothing.

hinata: type of person to HAAAAATE online drama so bad it makes her sick with stress just thinking about it. if she uses social media at all i think she has a diligently kept aesthetic tumblr blog where she posts photos and doesnt interact with anybody ever

hidan: active 4chan user.

jiraiya: its like if you took a facebook-exclusive boomer and dropped him into twitter without warning. his account was supposed to exclusively be his platform for his writing but he gave up that pretense a long time ago and now its basically just whatever he wants to put on there. we all already know what this looks like

orochimaru: saw suigetsu scrolling on twitter once and got an extensive rundown on how it works and the kind of people that frequent it. finds it fascinating in the way that one might study bacteria in a petri dish cultivated in toxic sludge, but thats about the extent of it. boruto-era however he is an active nextdoor and facebook user and exclusively posts wine mom memes

tsunade: has an official account as the hokage but its entirely run by shizune. honestly i dont think she would find much interest or enjoyment in anything social media has to offer her

suigetsu: you already know hes posting bad tiktok thirst traps. theyre really terrible . absolutely lives for kicking up drama in people's comment sections and runs an incredibly popular twitter ragebait account with more passion than hes put into anything else in his life ever

[spurgie-cousin]

I never thought I’d see the cult I grew up in on your page, but I’m so glad there are other people recognizing how awful the SDA (seventh day Adventist) church is. I was raised by a pastor and my whole family are still members. They refuse to believe that I no longer share their beliefs and constantly try to convince me to “give the church another chance.” they do not consider me a Christian because I’m no longer in their church. Growing up I didn’t know anyone who had ever managed to leave and to this day only one friend has left. There isn’t a strong ex-sda community that I know of and most resources are hard to find because they are buried by the church. The church as a whole is very doomsday esque and even as a kid growing up in the church I had so so much anxiety about it. There are a ton of rules which also contributes to the anxiety and the church culture is super judgmental and gossipy. I never understood why we had such different beliefs + practices from all the other churches and now I find it outrageous that I believed those things. I’m interested to see what else you come across and I am now going to see what ex-sda creators I can find (I don’t use TikTok) to relate to lol.

What's funny is I grew up in a town that had a ridiculous number of churches for its size, one of those being a fair-sized SDA church, but I don't remember ever meeting anyone from it. My church was the largest so it would organize multi-church events sometimes and there were only a few groups who never participated, SDA included (though to be fair I don't know if they just didn't want to, or if my church was discriminating lol).

So it feels crazy that I'm just now learning how cult-y they are. I think the church in my hometown was kind of an anomaly because their numbers are pretty small comparatively, something like 1.1 million in the US compared to ~90 million evangelicals, which is probably why they don't have a huge presence in the ex-Christian community.

The creator I posted is also the daughter of an Adventist pastor, it looks like she's only on tiktok right now (@songbirdsstory) but here are a few other places I've been reading ex-Adventist stories on platforms besides tiktok (also I will check out to Former Adventist podcast as well!):

Haystacks & Hell is a podcast and instagram account that collects ex-Adventist stories (that link takes you to their Instagram, their podcast info is in the link in their bio)

r/exAdventist which is a subreddit for ex-members of the church (if you're unfamiliar with reddit it's basically like a place for very specific online forums lol. people have conversations, tell stories, etc)

r/exChristian is another subreddit for ex-Christians as a while, but it has quite a few threads from ex-SDA that I've been reading. That link should take you to the list without having to search around.

and I do have a question but it's sensitive, so I understand if you're not comfortable answering: what was the generally accepted punishment for breaking the rules, like the health message etc? I know SongBirdSings from that video has said she suffered a lot of physical abuse, but she's also insinuated in other videos that that wasn't how it was for everyone. So I was just curious about what most people tolerated as acceptable reprimanding in the church.

[who-is-page]

hey! i'm new to this community so im so sorry if this is rude. i just heard about otherkin and therians from sophieinwonderland? but she said things about how being attracted to otherkin and therian people is like zoophilia and stuff. i'm sure those posts are still up on her blog if you want to look. anyways, that made me feel weird? so that's why i'm asking you. you seem to know a lot of things? based on my vibe check. so i was just wondering what your thoughts on this are.

I've had sophieinwonderland blocked for a really long time now, so I had to take a quick jaunt through her blog to check this-- I'm guessing you're referring to this post from 2022, where she says "Zoophilia means an attraction to animals. [...] I think we can all agree that biological nonhuman animals cannot consent and that bestiality is wrong. But what actually constitutes zoophilia is so much murkier. [...] if attraction to animals is zoophilia, is attraction to animal-identifying biological humans?" (It's important to note that Sophie states elsewhere on her blog that the TL;DR of what she was trying to convey in this post and the related debacle surrounding it is that she doesn't believe in thoughtcrimes, doesn't want non-offending paraphiles harassed or attacked, and supports human-bodied animal-persons in relationship with other consenting human-bodied adults. These are all pretty reasonable stances to hold, all things considered, and we don't want to conflate her with actual Zetas and bestialists-- she just seems to accidentally be repeating some questionable rhetoric without realizing it, because she isn't familiar with the therian community and its unique missing stairs in this regard. Source)

So from an outsider perspective, regarding folks who aren't particularly familiar with the otherkin and therian communities and who don't know better, this can seem like a genuine point or a fair question to bring up. What people don't actually often realize is that not only is this not true, but this sort of rhetoric is actually most often used as a bestialist dogwhistle. Let me explain.

So first off: no, having a partner who is an otherkin, a therian, a non-human fictionkin, or who otherwise is a human that identifies as an nonhuman animal does not make someone a zoophile nor a bestialist. Having sex with your human-bodied consenting adult partner is not bestiality. Loving them for who they are is not zoophilia. Zoophilia is, first and foremost in this context, an attraction to real-life actual animals. Things like thinking Mufasa LionKing is hot, or being a murrsuiter, or following a therian on OnlyFans, doesn't count.

(For those interested, there actually is a specific orientation term for people who are strictly alterhuman4alterhuman-- the term is "Medusan," it was coined in 2018, and it's actually more popular than you think.)

Now, here's where the unique problems of specifically the therian community comes into play, and why what sophieinwonderland is implying here is teetering close to an unintentional dogwhistle on her part, something she wouldn't have known because she's not a member of our communities. If you're not interested in the history aspect of this and why referring to therianthropy or otherkinship as potentially or inherently zoophilic is a dogwhistle, you can jump-ship here and I won't blame you-- I'm putting it below the cut for brevity's sake.

The therian community, if you're not aware, has had an issue in the past where several long-term, respectable members were revealed to be bestialists, either they themselves participating in bestiality or being knowingly supportive of those who do. These individuals were (and still are) also, unfortunately, in charge of or otherwise held leadership positions in some of the biggest and oldest therian and otherkin forums-- namely Therian Guide, OtherkinPhenomena (who shared a majority of its staff with Therian Guide), and the Werelist (who also shared staff with Therian Guide). You can check out my Therian Guide Beware for details and citations, because that's where most of this initial explosion of "WTAF" stemmed from.

When this all came out in roughly 2017-2019, it created complete community chaos. People felt betrayed, and rightly so. There were a lot of divisions in the community about where to draw the line, when, and how. And the bestialists intentionally made everything as messy as possible during the course of it all.

The bestialists largely justified their abuse through their own therianthropy and connection to animality, and when that didn't work, they pivoted to trying to include as much of the therian community under the "zoophilia" umbrella as possible in order to argue that it was natural or normal for therians to sexually abuse animals-- you can see an example of them doing that here, in Therian Guide owner DustWolf's baseless Twitter assertion that "60% of all therians are zoo[phile]s." (mirror).

For the record, no, 60% of therians are not zoophiles, and no current statistics from the community supports this. I wrote a Twitter thread in 2022 debunking this claim. But this also ties into the next point-- DustWolf isn't just referring to people who are attracted to real life animals. DustWolf is also referring to bestialists in this statistic, even if it's not immediately apparent.

The bestialists tried to paint this picture of all therians being pro-bestiality by trying to expand the definition of the term "zoophile" in public discourse and muddle its meaning as much as possible, to mean everything from "person who commits bestiality" to "person who had a crush on Nick Wilde as a teenager" to "person who experiences a sex drive and who also identifies as a nonhuman animal." They also used anti-bestiality backlash to try and lay claim on anyone who got caught in the cross-fire, playing the sympathetic shoulder to people who weren't bestialists or even zoophiles to get them to join up in their communities, and they coined terms like "zootherian" to try and reinforce a nonexistent connection between bestiality and therianthropy. It was, to summarize it succinctly, a complete clusterfuck. Nowadays, bestialists have also picked up queer social justice rhetoric and language to try and argue for the legalization of bestiality, though this wasn't as prevalent 2 years ago, which is its own issue.

Because of all this, assertions and implications that therians and otherkin are by default zoophiles, or that a majority of therians or otherkin are zoophiles, or that therianthropy and otherkinship can be intrinsically tied to zoophilia, or that zoophilia is queer and alterhuman, or even publicly identifying as a zoophile, is considered a major dogwhistle in the community. Historically when people who aren't just outright anti-kin have said these types of things to our communities, it's been to cover the asses of people who want to normalize and legitimize bestiality, or because the person in question is freely involved with communities and groups who have welcomed pro-bestiality attitudes. Saying that shit is a quick way to get blocked by a ton of alterhumans on most platforms. Sophie made a distinct division between "bestiality" and "zoophilia" in her commentary so it's obvious she didn't intend it that way, but it's still really not a great thing to say or imply because of the history behind it and the ways it's been used before.

So, to reiterate: no, people who date therians and otherkin aren't zoophiles, and people who say such are implying a lot more than they actively realize.

[mundanemoongirl]

I’ve read 32 books this year. Some were mysteries, some were thrillers, some were realistic fiction, and most were fantasy. So here’s my top 5 out of every book I’ve read!

But first, my honorable mentions

This Woven Kingdom by Tahereh Mafi has some of the most beautiful descriptions and wordings that I have read. I also love the Persian culture in it. I'm always fascinated when reading about different cultures and this is one I don’t know much about. It felt unique and authentic. The reason this one isn’t in my top 5 is because I felt it relied too much on tropes and the plot was a bit cliche. The second book especially suffers from this.

Going Dark by Melissa De La Cruz is a mystery I thought was so good it helped to inspire my own. It touches on important topics like racism and mental illnesses. I love how social media is used to find clues and I was so invested in the story that I stayed up late every night to know more. The only thing keeping this book from being perfect to me is that about halfway through, the backstory is told to the reader. I would have rather the characters find it out for themselves.

When I tell you I loved Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao so much I wrote a three page paper on it and submitted it for my communications final (I got an A). I love character driven stories and Xifeng is one of my favorite characters of all time. Her arc progresses at a perfect pace and I love seeing her use the few skills she possesses to get what she wants. As a dark fantasy writer, I appreciate that the book doesn’t shy away from gruesome aspects. The reason this book isn’t in my top five is because I wanted to see Xifeng’s rule as empress. That’s it. I just wanted more Xifeng.

And now my top 5 under the cut

5. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

This is not the type of book I’d normally read, but it blew away all of my expectations and I absolutely adored it. At first, I didn’t really like Monique’s character. I wasn’t interested in her failed marriage and I was pretty annoyed every time she didn’t understand what was being said to her (which happens way too often), but as she learned from Evelyn I was really rooting for her.

It was Evelyn’s story that wouldn’t let me stop reading. It was similar to Xifeng in a way where she started as a girl who was pretty, but had nothing, and manipulated her way to becoming a superstar. I was especially gripped by Evelyn’s insistence that Monique will hate her. I just needed to keep going to find out why.

There were a lot of unique aspects that I liked, such as the chapter titles. They were so fun and I kept repeated them in my head. I also like how parts of the story are told through forums and news articles. Other than the fact this this is a unique aspect, I liked it because we got to hear a different perspective than the person telling the story.

Also, yay for a bisexual main character! It was done so well and respectful, and not the stereotypical cheater character. I have been waiting my whole life for this type of representation.

The last thing I want to say about this one is that Reid really makes an art of writing. There are so many quotable lines and you can tell so much thought was put into every word.

4. The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen

It’s a pretty cliche story: a princess must reclaim her throne. But The Queen of the Tearling works so well because of its main character, Kelsea. She’s such a beautifully complex character. On one hand, she wants to prove herself as queen. But on the other, she wants to be free to be a teenage girl. She rules with compassion for her people. But she also has an underlying ruthlessness and short temper. She looks to the future by examining the past, and how can you not root for a character so strong that she demanded her throne with a knife in her shoulder?

I appreciate that this book didn’t go the trope route and have the ruler of the rival kingdom become Kelsea’s lover. It’s fine one time, but it’s way overdone, and Kelsee’s strengths shine through more without this trope.

I like how each chapter opens up with a quote. Like the articles in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, this gives the reader insight into what other characters think.

I have to say that even though this book blew me away, the last book has the worst ending I have ever read in my life. It was lazy, dismissive of the themes throughout the series, and just exasperating because it erases the growth of the characters and kingdom. I have no idea why Johansen would write it into existence and it somewhat tarnished my view on the series.

3. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

Is it really surprising that a Hunger Games book is in my top 5? I was hesitant at first to read it because I thought it would be a sympathy story or a cash grab, but I'm so glad that I gave it a try because it was so much more than I thought.

I feel like it's a theme on my list that I like to see stories where something small slowly evolves into something big. That's a big part of why I love this book. We get to see how the games went from something no one liked to the sporting event we know it as. It was a bonus to see that Snow's impact on the games as well.

I loved getting back into the Hunger Games universe, especially now that we get more of what the capitol is like. I have to admit that I haven't read the original trilogy in almost a decade so my memory is a little shaky, but I don't remember anything about the capitol being poor at one point. I liked this detail and getting to know capitol kids like Clemensia because it makes the capitol more complex. Before, I only knew it as a completely evil, selfish, privileged group of people, but now we can understand it better.

I love Lucy Gray's character. As a former musician, I appreciate that her power is through song and I enjoyed reading the meaning in her lyrics. I was kicking my feet reading about the Hanging Tree song and her teaching Snow about katniss roots because they live on to haunt him 60 years later. As always, Collins knows how to incorporate so much meaning into her writing.

The only thing I disliked is that it started to drag in Part III.

2. I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

This one was heavy, but I'm thankful to McCurdy for being vulnerable and sharing this raw story. As someone who grew up on iCarly, she was an important part of my childhood. I listened to the audiobook version, which just made it all the more personal.

You can tell from the writing that McCurdy was meant to be a writer. She somehow manages to make such a sad story humorous, and I found myself getting lost in her the way she describes background information that I didn't even notice that she deviated from the main topic until she brought us back. Not to mention, the writing sounds like she is telling a story directly to you. It reminds me of experts like Bell Hooks, someone who I have described as having a style like talking to a close friend.

McCurdy also has a deep understanding of herself and her emotions, even during times in which she didn't understand nor want to understand the harm that was done to her and how she copes with it. It's obvious to the audience what's going on, but not to her, and she writes it in a way where we can understand the truth of her circumstances while also understanding her point of view from when she was experiencing trauma. I doubt many people can understand themselves this well.

Each chapter had me hooked. I kept telling myself that her life couldn't get worse, but then it did. There were times when I nearly cried, and once when I was so shocked that I involuntarily covered my mouth with my hand and couldn't move it back for a minute. This book will make you feel everything.

I hate how some people are shaming the book just because of the title because this is such an important story, and if you just read it you would understand the title completely.

Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury

Fantasy, sci-fi, and mystery all in one? So much diversity that you can swim in it? Quite possibly the cutest romance to ever exist? I didn't know the perfect book existed and yet here it is.

I knew this book would be a favorite of mine from the moment I saw it. You have a beautiful, colorful cover on one side, and a description on the other saying a girl has to destroy her first love in order to get magic. I still can't believe that this is Sambury's debut book.

One thing I love about Blood Like Magic (and its sequel) is that despite all the fantastical elements, the books feel so real. Voya's family feels so real because they aren't rich, they aren't powerful in a social aspect, and they aren't perfect. The cast of characters feel real because POCs, gay, and trans people are going to exist no matter what. The romance feels real because they don't instantly fall in love. The plot feels real because sometimes everything will go wrong, no matter how hard you try to make it right. And of course there's the realest aspect of them all: all Black grandmas are going to have attitude.

Ok, I have to talk more about the romance because Luc and Voya are so stinking cute. I was actually squealing and kicking my feet while reading because it's so obvious that they adore each other and can't even tell. I didn't even like the enemies to lovers trope before I read this book, but Sambury does it perfectly. I also like that she makes a distinction between physical and romantic attraction because I think it gets muddled in a lot of popular books these days.

Voya's such a relatable character. We all struggle to make decisions sometimes. We never want to be left out or hurt the people we care about. Also, her name is so pretty and it doesn't even mean anything?!

Do I even have to mention that all the different types of magic are so fun and creative? Do I even have to mention that all the advanced technology seems like it could really happen? Everyone go read Blood Like Magic and Blood Like Fate right now.

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

And with Dangancember starting I have to say two things, firstly happy birthday Mod. I kinda feel for the people who are born in December since due to Christmas, I feel a lot of their birthday gifts are held off until Christmas. Source: Family members of mine who are also born in December.

And now we get to 2-3, widely considered one of the worst canon cases in the franchise. This has been debated, analysised and deconstructed by many for almost a decade now, with many wild takes. You cover the main points why people hate this chapter; the Despair Disease being kinda BS, the lack of character agency, Hiyoko being overlooked and the Mikan plot hole. However I do want to inject my own insight and some stuff that others have talked about.

Firstly the whole "Hiyoko was meant to be a survivor and Fuyuhiko was a Chapter 3 death but it got changed at the last minute because Kodaka felt it would make Peko's sacrifice hollow" is actually a complete lie. This was never said by the developers and it was a false rumour that started on a South Korean forum with no source behind it. Its probably the biggest misconceptionn the Danganronpa fanbase has as a large chunk of it, including me at one point, used to believe it.

I do think Ibuki needed to die in Chapter 3 because of the whole "Shoo Out The Clowns" the trope where as things get more serious, the more comedic and light-hearted characters would either get more solumn moments or just be killed off entirely to make way for the future plot points. And since Ibuki was the main source of happiness on Jabberwock Island, she needed to be killed off. But I do think Hiyoko should have survived past Chapter 3 because her development was more of a slow burner when compared to Fuyuhiko who does a complete 180 on his personality. It would be interesting to see how she reacts to Mikan being the culprit, the Funhouse and learning she has a growth spurt.

So if we can't shake off the whole double killers, then who takes Hiyoko's place? A lot of people suggest Sonia under the logic she doesn't do anything in the plot, and her death would turbocharge Kazuichi's and Gundham's character development. Heck you wouldn't even need to change the plot all that much, just have Sonia go to get the mirror from the Music Venue to help Hiyoko tie her Kimono on. But this never sat right with me as it sounds a lot like fridging. So my logic has been to have Kazuichi killed off as like Sonia he also really doesn't do anything post Chapter 3, the best I can think of is him coming up the plan to catch Nagito in Chapter 5 but someone else could have also done that easily, such as Fuyuhiko or Hiyoko for example. But my main reason is that the DR2 survivors all have in common the theme of loss. Fuyuhiko lost Peko his childhood friend and someone he was developing feelings for, Sonia lost Gundham a person who she felt understood her as a indivivual, Akane lost Nekomaru her coach and the one who taught her to be the best she can be, and while everyone was devestated by Chiaki's loss, Hajime was the most effected by it as she was always by him no matter what. And what about Kazuichi? He...needs to learn to stop being a coward...doesn't really have the same ring to it. But if Hiyoko was there then she would have lost Mahiru, the one person who tried to understand her and teach her that not everyone on the island is out to get her.

Regarding the Despair Disease while I haven't really gotten into Instagram Fanganronpas, I have heard that Ronpa and Friends, the Mickey Mouse Fanganronpa brings back the Despair Disease for its Chapter 3, but its done in a better way since rather then be a random virus, its discovered it was caused by auditory hypnotic mind control caused by the morning announcement. And rather then radically change people's personalities, like real life hypnosis, it removes any filters the victims have so they are behaving what they truly are deep down, and nothing they do is against their moral code. Honestly if the canonical Despair Disease was like that, then it would be very interesting as aside from the fact having it being a auditory hypnosis makes this way more believable to the player, and also how Monokuma can turn it off so easily, but it means that nothing the characters do is something they wouldn't do as its who they truly are deep down.

I also see it as foreshadowing for the purpose of the Killing Game since this is when the motives become far less fair and more about just making sure bodies drop as AI Junko's motive is to have everyone killed off so she can possess their bodies. As such this shift from temptations to things to guarantee deaths, is more hinting towards that. And the plot hole could easily be patched up if Chiaki was still sleepy and Hajime had to really search for other people to wake up so they could go to the music venure or heck make it so it takes longer to get from the motels to the music venures. Both of those fixes would stop people from questioning how tf Mikan was able to do this. Or maybe have a scene in Chapter 3 where its revealed Mikan's clumsy behaviour is just a act she puts on to make people notice her and in reality she is a lot more nimble then others think.

Any of those changes could have resolved the plot hole. And also don't have it so Mikan just outright spells out critical information which just makes her look even more sus. Yes I'm talking about the Monomi bag there, that was a really dumb move on Mikan's part. As I do believe Mikan going crazy was a reason why LINUJ was thinking of making Kanata into a psycho originally, to hark back to Mikan before he had a change of heart and made her wholesome. And I am forever grateful for that.

Another issue with the Monokuma Theater play? It was completely forgetable as before you brought it up, I completely forgot this was a thing in the chapter which shows how little of a impact it has overall to the case in general. Even if it was a red herring, at least make it so Mikan was trying to throw people off with it and not be something completely pointless.

There's a reason we talk about Chapter 3 syndrome in Danganronpa games because like Ace Attorney, its normally where the plot is at its weakest. And even the "best" Chapter 3, which its really obvious what that is since we have covered all the others, has its own issues.

And lastly Mikan's execution sucks balls. Like...what on earth was going on there? It had no reference to her talent, it had no reference to her personality, it was just the most wtf thing I have seen. At least if you are gonna do a execution, make it so it actually fits the character in question. I'm actually surprised you didn't touch on the execution in all fairness, but let's face it, among the many things wrong with 2-3, Bye Bye Ouchies is the least of your worries.

Its not a case where you scream at the game on why it exists like the Dishonourable Mentions, but its still a very, very weak chapter, which did require some more fine tuning and cooking in the oven before it came out. Its all well and good setting up for future plot points but you need to have it make sense in the actual narrative at the time.

The good news is that we start at the bottom so things only get better from here.

//Okay, so here's my breakdown of all of this.

//First off: Thank you for the bitthday wishes. And yeah, it is a bummer, but as I've gotten older, it doesn't really bother me anymore. 22 years of living on this earth and I fail to really get excited or in a celebratory mood about my birthday. It's fine though.

//Second, in regard to the misinformation about Fuyuhiko and Hiyoko, thanks for clearing that up for me. Honestly, I'm learning a lot more about the Danganronpa series lately that I didn't know before now. Guess this is just part of it, but thanks for the clarification.

//However, for my third point, what I'm about to say might sound a little bit indelicate. About the Shoo Out The Clowns trope being the reason why Ibuki had to be killed.

//I'm sorry, but that's complete bullshit.

//And it's proven as such to me by your very own analysis here on how Hiyoko should have been a survivor.

//Danganronpa 2's surviving group consists of Hajime, Akane, Fuyuhiko, Sonia, and Kazuichi. And THREE of those five characters primarily fit into the cast as COMIC RELIEF characters. All different forms of it, but the point stands.

//And okay, even not counting Sonia, Akane, and Kazuichi, look at the surviving group of Danganronpa 1. Two of the characters that survived that game were Hiro, and Toko, who is also Genocide Jack. You know, the two most stupid and bonkers characters in that game?

//Killing off Ibuki with the excuse that she would ruin the tense atmosphere of the final few trials is complete and utter nonsense because other comic characters made it to the end of the game in all three mainline Danganronpa games, and did their usual BS in those trials, and yet it didn't affect my overall mood of the trial, or the mystery, or the emotions that were felt.

//Also, in regards to how Hiyoko's development was more of a slow burn, while Fuyuhiko's was a very sudden 180; while I do agree with that, I think it does ultimately make sense that Fuyuhiko had his sudden turnaround.

//With them both being bratty half-pints that come from influential families, Hiyoko and Fuyuhiko do actually have a lot in common beyond being the characters who (almost, in Hiyoko's case) develop post-Chapter 2. The difference however is that Hiyoko is ride-or-die on her bullshit, and has been raised in an environment where she thinks its okay to treat herself like she's better than everyone, wheras Fuyuhiko has clearly never vibed with that idea, is far more honorable than he initially comes across, and only acts tough because he's afraid to let his family down, or come across as weak to Peko.

//And sure. These ideas that you have could maybe have made the trial and the game more interesting. Allowing Hiyoko to survive while someone like Sonia or Kazuichi, who had less impact on the story in the end, to take her place as the victim might have been better. Also, the idea that Kazuichi could be replaced by Hiyoko as a survivor because she, like the others, was carrying someone's will. ALSO, the idea that Hajime's attempt to get help could have been dragged out to fix the plothole.

//But you're missing the point. These are what COULD have happened, not what ACTUALLY happened. THIS is what actually happened, and it sucks. We can talk about what could have happened all the live long day, but the fact is this is what we've got, and this is what we'll always have.

//As a couple of side notes as part of this paragraph, I haven't actually seen Ronpa and Friends, but I have several accounts from people who have seen it, and all of them think it's one of the best Fanganronpa's ever. I fully believe that, because Penguinronpa was a similarly silly concept, yet ended up being phenomenal, so maybe I'll check it out one day myself.

//And also I know we can complain about this later when we get to the Another and Another 2 cases, but goddamnit, WHY, of all characters for LINUJ to base his writing on, does it have to be the CHAPTER 3 culprits!? All three of them suck ass one way or another, and even though Mikan is the best of them in my opinion, they're all so cartoonishly villainous and ridiculously evil that it really takes you out of it.

//But yeah, you don't know how happy I am that Kanata turned out not to be evil like Mikan was.

//And lastly, I'm sorry if I didn't clarify this before, but I'm actually not going to take the executions into account. The executions themselves belong on a seperate list that I've already done. As far as I'm concerned, this list is specifically looking at the cases and the trials, which covers the death, the investigation, and the trial. The executions are just the conclusion at the end of all this stuff, and they do not affect my opinion on the mystery itself, for better or for worse, so I will not be talking about them. Although, I do agree that Mikan's execution is very poor.

//Although this is not universal. I WILL be talking about the executions, but ONLY if they serve a significant importance on the narrative, which usually, they don't. If I can give you an example, Kaito's execution would count as part of the trial for me, because it's very important to the narrative and the sequence of events in Chapter 5 and 6 of V3.

//But yeah, the sad thing is I do want to like this trial, because it has some good stuff that I feel goes overlooked, and Mikan is LEAGUES better a killer than Kiyo is.

//But the notion that this trial is just poorly structured and has so many bad logistics is unfortunately super fair.

-Mod

[covenantscribe]

Prejudgement: Jacob Anderson – Face of 'Woke' & 'Unnecessary'

Summary and disclosure:

This will be a series formatted post on the topic of Interview with the Vampire AMC and the reactions of Fandom before the airing of Season One. Following the conversations around the choices of casting and concentrating on the issues on some public takes.

This post will be used for reference in future posts on this blog. This post discusses racism. This post contains mature language.

Part One | Understanding: Permission, Author & Fandom

As a person who has been passively taking in fanwork for the majority of my life and not knowing it, I could not understand how it feels to be part of an hyper-active fandom. Nor did I understand how one feels to be in it.

The fandoms I have been a part of that I can compare to Interview with the Vampire is: Hannibal (HBO), Teen Wolf and Shadow Hunters.

By the time I came into the fandom it was already "dead" – meaning that the show had aired and 'finished' airing and not much discourse was around it. So what did I do to be considered part of this fandom and passively interacting?

Well I created pins, created Moodboards and watched some edits on YouTube and TikTok (when it became famous during 2020). And for a few of the fandoms I read Fanfics. Completed ones mainly mind you.

So imagine how unprepared I was going into Interview with the vampire fandom. Of course there was excitement. I was going to be one of those people that would see a Tumblr post on Pinterest and be able to say:

Who wouldn't be excited? I was there when Cord of Communion by weathermood was written which is crazy to say now that I think about. One of the most loved and well known Interview with the vampire Fics. I was there when the Helen of Troy meme started. It was absolutely insane. I felt like someone who had invested in Bitcoin and feeding off its success.

But I was not part of the fandom who came from the original text. And I - as someone who held themselves in high regard to come from those who read the books before the movies came into existence - put them in high regard.

This did not last as I realised that those who I put on high regard did not in fact want me - a black person - in the fandom. Or at least that is how I felt. Just as I felt when Ariel was casted black. I was quickly losing interest in the fandom I so desperately wanted to be in.

Let's start from the beginning:

On May 13, 2020 AMC announced that it entered an agreement to acquire Anne Rice's major literary works. It further continued to state in the article that Anne Rice herself was excited for her works to be represented so wholly and that she was more than satisfied with the deal. Anne Rice's son was also announced to be supportive and working alongside Rolin Jones.

It's acknowledged how big the franchise is with a large number of fans behind the works. This is said, paraphrased obviously, by Rolin Jones himself.

And I mean the guy is right. Damn is he right. Anne Rice works, especially The Vampire Chronicles in my experience, has a huge fan base. The Vampire Chronicles has, to this current date I'm writing in have over 3000 works on AO3. Has a different forum of Reddit from just the authors name to the works themselves.

And let's not forget those on Tumblr from tags to people dedicated to the series and the author.

Rolin Jones was making an adaptation of Anne Rice's works. Had permission to do so. Now before we go on let's look at the definition of Adaptation:

a film, book, play, etc. that has been made from another film, book, play, etc.: From Cambridge Dictionary.

A more descriptive meaning:

I am a firm believer that this would have changed and avoided many harmful idealogies and actions in the fandom. But I digress.

A fandom is described as to a community of people who are passionate about something, whether it’s a film, a band, a television show, a book, or a sports team. (x)

A fandom is important because it provides opportunities to connect with other like-minded individuals. It also serves a purpose of allowing easy discovery from an interest into another range of interest. More importantly: Fandom can shape and influence decisions of the media and how they interact with the show. Along with the creative decision of the creator.

The fandom of Interview with the vampire was already established from The Vampire Chronicles. People had a predispositioned idea on what to expect. The fandom in this time were, to no surprise, predominantly white fans. Not to say that no POC existed within this fandom that they were not the majority.

At the time of the announcement it did not make many waves to the unsuspecting people in the outside world. But the Fandom took note of this. [Obviously] Conversations and interviews were watched and re-watched of Anne Rice throughout the years and comments were made. This was about 4 to 3 years ago.

The casting was not released. No one really knew what was planned for these shows and when they would be aired. At this time I was still in my Hannibal obsession and the only thing about Interview with the vampire was from a meme with a white man saying: Not gay enough. On my Pinterest board.

So I cannot speak about my experience during this time in the fandom [though I do encourage people who were around this time to share your experiences with me if you want I'm curious how it was for different people] but the general consensus was trepidation and excitement.

I can understand this because not only did the fandom go around feeling like drug dealers in threat of getting busted by the police when writing and publishing Fanfic at the time but also Fanart and even Comics were made because of the love these people had for The Vampire Chronicles.

The fandom had an already made up idea on what this would mean for them. One of these ideas was definitely NOT a Black, Creole, 4b haired and green eyed vampire. Almost completely different from white, raven-chin length hair and green eyed Louis. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

At this time I can only imagine how the fandom was feeling about the adaptation because as much I can do further research and deep dive into digital foot print I do not have that kind of time in my hands at this point in my life.

Anne Rice works, I will say again, were celebrated and she was held in high regard by supernatural-loving fans. She was – and still – seen as the Mother of Modern Vampires and the depiction in media. She has influenced many well known and famous Vampire media such as Twilight and True Blood.

So I'm left with only imagining how it somewhat felt like for people looking forward to Disney live actions and the Teen Wolf movie. [The fandom was large in size but apparently not large enough to be a few hours of Google search away to be able to find out about the discourse around this point in time.]

But AMC worked fast (kudos to them honestly) and the next year around August of 2021. They came out with the main casting and...

Jacob Anderson was announced as our [cherished and loved] Louis du Lac of today.

This made waves in the fandom and lit the seat of the loyal fans to write about the current happenings in their fandom to all media platforms. Tumblr, Reddit, YouTube, Twitter X, etc.

As much as there were hesitant joy over it and encouragement over the happenings there was also...a lot of upset over the fans.

Shortly after this announcement Anne Rice died in December of 2021 [RIP🕊️]. She and her son had been working closely on the adaptation with Rolin Jones. Anne was survived by her son who stayed in the process of the production. This will ultimately be both significant and insignificant in the grand scheme of things regarding the fandom's reaction to everything before the airing of the Pilot episode of Interview with the Vampire AMC.

At this time I was also still absent from the fandom. Or rather I should say I was being introduced to the Pilot episode through one fated AMC TikTok promotion edit.

I was not online as much and thus wasn't affected as much during that time. Unknowing of the discourse around the Casting and the upcoming trailers brewing. I simply just saved the TikTok in my favourites and promised to watch it for later.

Though I can understand and sympathise at a certain point with the upset over the casting choices because as a book reader I can understand we do kinda gatekeep shit. But only up to a certain point because I get over it fast.

I understand what an adaptation is and what it means. It will mostly never mean a direct copy and paste of the book.

The cards had been shuffled and handed out and the game was about to begin. Word got around and before the airing of the Pilot episode of what would be the one of the most influencial piece of media to me, the people's feelings were simmering and were ready to burst.

How the audience reacted would forever determine what the Fandom looks now and how people interpret the characters. Unfortunately, in the long run, this transformation was not positive. But some, to this day would disagree.

Part Two | Reactions: Anger, Joy & Racism → Coming Soon

Part [1/?]

[solradguy]

Indeed indeed I am the same Fan Lore Anon! I spent the night on a TVtropes forum page looking through their pages. There were some interesting links in there, but because a lot of the messages were from 2012 a lot of the stuff wasn’t dated far enough back to get fun fan theories. It’s mostly “do you think the next game is going to be a recap of Overture for people who didn’t like Overture?” (It was not)

http://www.guiltygear🐦‍⬛ru/files/faqs/ggxxplot🐦‍⬛txt

Here’s the link to the Kuro Ky mention, although that’s only part of it. Replace my emojis with periods (they should be birds)!!

It’s from 2003, which means that Kuro Ky was a thing prior to or around GGXX, and his minor influence on SolKy. I think it’s indicative of a desire to highlight a darker side of Ky, to pair him up with a “monster” like Sol. It’s also pretty early 2000s as a fandom trope. I’m not sure how popular he was in the west.

I’m actually more interested in the mention of Ino/Sol being a popular fan theory, which I’m fairly certain you’ve done an ask about. They had a line that was like “long time no see” but was mistranslated as “you haven’t written (to me)” that gave a wrong impression.

It’s all very interesting, but please be aware that it’s wrong a lot. If you read it, think of it how you would read an alchemy notebook. Like, yeah phosphorus does exist but I don’t think it can do what you think it does. That was a lousy metaphor for Testament being called by he/him, but that was honestly really common until…two years ago?

OHHH this document is in the lore server!! But I never read it because... it's very outdated haha as you said. It's just in there for archival purposes.

I've heard of that I-No line before too. IIRC the original Japanese line is like an idiom or something but it's one of those ones where when it's directly translated into English its meaning changes. So the line should be adjusted in English to be something else that fits the vibe even if it's not 1:1 what she was saying in Japanese since people would misinterpret it otherwise.

It is really interesting finding these little time capsules of the old GG fandom, their headcanons, and their predictions for where they thought the series was going to go. I'm a big fan of what they used to think the "flame of corruption" in relation to Sol via Justice meant lol. Those headcanons went all over. Wish there was an easier way to dig more of them up...

Thanks for sharing more of what you found!! The old Dustloop forums have some pretty great early/pre-Xrd fandom stuff too

[meeeeeeese]

Huzzah inspiration has struck again and I have achieved writing.

The tale of Rugan's 'chance' encounter with a journalist at the start of SotO

It was lunch time at the parade grounds, and across the dusty paw-stomped courtyard, soldiers were taking a break from their drills to enjoy a bite to eat. However, one soldier stood out from the rest, a large copper-furred charr holding a letter in one paw and gently cradling a sleeping cub with the other. Rugan’s tail was beginning to twitch with annoyance, “Go to the parade grounds just north of the Hero's Forum. I'll meet you there.”, the letter said, and yet as the minutes ticked by, Rytlock was still nowhere to be seen. Rugan started to reach for his communicator, to ask where the hell Rytlock was, but stopped as he spotted someone walking up to him. It was a human woman, Canthan in origin, with a notepad and quill pinned under her arm. The brief moment of eye contact gave her an opening, and before she even stopped walking, she launched her introduction.

“The Pact Commander. Champion of an Elder Dragon. The talk of Tyria. In. The. Flesh.”

Rugan sighed, Rytlock had better turn up soon. He responded with a gruff “Do I know you?”, trying his best to indicate he wasn’t much interested in a chat. However, the human pressed on with her spiel unabated. “Mi-Rae of the Cantha Report. International News Desk. Seeing the sights and seeking stories from Central Tyria. Got a minute to chat? You've got one heck of a story, and the people deserve to hear it.”

Falx stirred in Rugan’s arm; he gave the cub an affectionate scratch under the chin before grumbling out “I can… probably spare a minute”.

Mi-Rae gave him a practiced smile before springing into the first question “Good. Walk with me. Talk with me. Didn't have the chance while you were still in Cantha. Big name like you probably has a thousand things to say, but let's start with this...” She tapped a jade-tech device strapped to her side before continuing, judging by its make, it looked to be a recorder. “Killing Soo-Won, saving the world. Ending the reign of the Elder Dragons. A lot to cope with. Thoughts?”

Rugan shrugged, he wasn’t all that interested in baring out his inner thoughts to a stranger and gave a brief response, “We did what needed to be done. At great cost, too.”

Mi-Rae nodded, writing some notes down before commenting “Mmm. An interesting perspective. How do you respond to charges that your leadership—or lack thereof—was one of the chief reasons for the catastrophic events that negatively impacted Cantha?”

Rugan’s eyes narrowed, truthfully the collateral damage from his actions had caused him a lot of anguish, and it was still an ever-present spectre lurking in the back of his mind. But again, he wasn’t about to say all that to a reporter, and so responded with the same hollow excuse he’d said to himself so many times, “I've always acted with the best information available at the time.” His gaze broke from the reporter and back down to his cub, who had woken up and was looking sleepily up at his sire.

Once again Mi-Rae jotted down some notes, before following Rugan’s gaze down to his cub and smiling excitedly. No one had broken the story yet that the legendary Pact Commander had a cub, and so she chose her next question to lead into asking more about Rugan’s personal life.

“That’s clearly a touchy subject. Let's move on, shall we? Do you think the world is a better place without the Elder Dragons? A better place for your cub to grow up?”

This question at least didn’t need a dodge or a long explanation, Rugan stated simply “If we hadn't acted, we wouldn't be here having this conversation”, he lifted his cub up a bit “He wouldn’t be here either”.

Mi-Rae gave a quick nod of acknowledgement, “Good point. Let's talk about you for a moment. What's next for the legendary commander? Any future plans you'd like to divulge here, exclusively for my audience?”. She gave a pointed look at the cub in Rugan’s arms as she talked, trying to indirectly probe for details. Rugan sighed again, truthfully, he had no damn idea what he was gonna do, but at least he had a short-term plan. He responded without breaking eye contact with Falx “Well… I think I know what my plan is for the next year or so. At least until it’s time for the little guy to go to the fahrar”

A quick flash of annoyance crossed Mi-Rae’s face as she scribbled down some more notes, the commander hadn’t divulged all that many headline worthy stories from her indirect questions, so it was time to go on the attack. “So, now that we've got the high-level questions answered, let's get to the meat of the matter. What my audience really wants to hear.” She paused for a moment, as if charging up her journalistic power. “Alright, tell me some of the juicy details. Scandal. Death. Romance. What’s the name of your cub, who’s the mother, are the rumours true that you’re in a secret relationship with Imperator Kindleshot? What are your hopes for the cub’s future?”

A grimace spread across Rugan’s face, Rytlock had better turn up right now or he was going to maul the tribune next time he saw him. If Mi-Rae was going to be blatant with the Gossip-mill questions he was going to dodge them that much more blatantly.

“There’s not much to say really, we prevented widespread disaster a few times. Lost some friends along the way. But now that the dragon cycle is over, it's...peaceful… The cub’s name is Falx by the way.”

The look of annoyance reappeared on Mi-Rae’s face, she muttered to herself "Pact Commander's retirement haunted by dreams of the past, the screams of war..." as she filled up her notepad. She opened her mouth to pry further when they were both distracted by a tiny Asuran golem skittering up to Rugan holding a box in its tiny little hands. A robotic voice echoed out “Delivery for Rugan Coppertail, thank you for choosing Larkk’s Delivery Service”.

Rugan had never looked so relieved in his life. He muttered under his breath “whoever sent this you are a lifesaver.” Before coughing and speaking louder to Mi-Rae, “Oh... burn me this looks really important… looks like I gotta go…”

Mi-Rae looked disappointed, but with one final glance down at her notes, she turned off her recorder and said “I think I've got what I need. Just you wait; your name will be painted on every chronicle in Tyria. Thank you, "Commander." You can trust me to tell your story as authentically and accurately as possible.” She gave him a final wave goodbye, spun around on her heel and walked off.

Before Rugan picked up the box, he took one final look at the letter from Rytlock. At this point he was wondering if he’d gotten the wrong place, and as he skimmed through it a realisation hit him like an overloading photon-forge.

“Please come at your earliest convenience.” “Please” -Rugan had known Rytlock for over a decade at this point. And Rytlock. Never. Uses. The word. Please. And... the reporter somehow knew exactly where to find him…

“OH SON OF A FLAMING TITAN!” He yelled out, loud enough that nearby soldiers gave a quick glance his way as Falx squirmed in Rugan’s arms, looking around to see why his dad was being loud.

Tricked by a damn reporter of all people. Rugan breathed deeply before scrunching up the letter from “Rytlock” and tossing it over his shoulder. Now, time to see what this delivery was all about.